Double story Extension advice for a beginner

[Oblomov17]

There is a thread for people already undergoing extensions.
We are just at the beginning Stage and I would just like some suggestions/-advice.

Dh's brother is a builder and thinks it's a good idea.
We currently have a 12 ft patio that goes across the whole of the house.

Plan: Build a double story extension, so would get 12 ft extra on lounge, and also 12ft onto the dining room downstairs.

Upstairs: you would get 12ft onto the back bedroom and also 12 ft into the smaller box room bedroom.

This would leave us with a small garden. 15ft. But we have access to a huge secure communal garden.

Dh thinks this would enable us to make money, sell in a few years, and move into a bungalow, because dh has knee problems.

What do you all think?

That picture isn't ours. Ours is the mirror image of that one: house that sold in our cul-de-sac last week.

Thank you. That is a concern for me too. I will ask for EA advice.

A 15ft garden would put me off hugely too.

Use the money to move to a bigger house.

We can't. We have a small amount of money. Not enough to buy us bigger.

The idea was that that small amount would be used by bil, who would build it for free, all his time for free, swallow all the VAT etc, as a favour to his brother.
Thus making the house worth possibly 40-50k more, enabling us to move into very sought after bungalows. I don't actually like bungalows, but realise for knee problems, they help a lot.

I'm not being flippant but a stair lift is way cheaper than moving house if your house has space. They're a bit like heating aids in that you assume they're only for old people, but if they give you a super power then it's all good!
And also if someone doesn't charge for some work then there's no vat to charge in the first place!

But you can't just make really long thin rooms, swallow up the garden and expect to make a profit! You will have to completely redo the layout, move the kitchen, add a 4th bedroom and ensuite and landscape garden etc to even consider adding value. And if bil is working for free how much spare time does he have? Presumably he'd carry on with his day job during the week. How much money do you have? Is it enough to pay for materials, new kitchens and bathrooms even?

Personally, if I was looking at an extended originally 3 bedroom house, I'd be expecting to see a 4th bedroom added, not 12 ft added to a fairly decent sized 2nd bedroom.
And I say that as someone currently part way through a house sale/ purchase.

Well yes, you are of course all right. I was concerned about the long thin rooms and also generally how this was all going to work.

I am not convinced by this all at all. Which I guess is the core problem.

It is hard when you can't afford to move. You would need 50-60-75k to get anything better than what we have.
So you are stuck.

Although redesigning, the downstairs space, is not a problem. Layout can be changed.
It is quite changeable, easily walked through/around.

To address the problem of long thin rooms, the extension would go across current lounge and dining room. See linked photo. Many of the current houses already have the lounge and dining room linked : see my original floor plan, there is a doorway from finning room to lounge on that.
Some people add a conservatory, that links the lounge to dining room.

And I never thought we could or should even try for a 4th bedroom. When are garden is do small. Although I have re measured it, since posting and it is bigger than I first thought, and also could be made bigger than currently is, by applying to council to purchase some of the communal garden.

Bil is not the problem. He's so lovely, worked liked a dog, his whole life, 7 days a week, and could probably retire now, and just look after all his buy-to-let properties, but he chooses to carry on working self employed.

We do have the money for building materials, new kitchen etc. But he would probably end up buying those, through his business - I thought there was quite a lot of VAT on kitchens and bathrooms.
He has built large extensions, conservatories etc for all his other brothers and sisters over the years, so was quite happy to work on dh's solely, he said.

Oh I'm sorry. I just don't know what it best.

Other house, locally. Sorry forgot to add to previous post.

Well your BIL sounds like a lovely man!

I think I would get some local EAs round to discuss current value and value + extension w small garden.

without knowing how much it might add you can't decide if you shoudl do it.

I agree that making a 3 bed with smallish garden to extended 3 bed with tiny garden is unlike to get you the profit you anticipate. If you were to make it a 4 bed (and I think you could by using the cupboard between the 2 back bedrooms as the start of a mini corridor to access a 4th bedroom) you might have a chance at increasing the value - but I agree that the vast majority of people looking for a 4 bed house will be family buyers with 2 or 3 children and would be put off by a 15ft garden. You'll have (I imagine) a very small pool of potential buyers.

Thank you both. I will contact a lovely EA I know, before I do anything else!!